2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 88
TRIUMPHING
OVER EVIL
We are proud to
establish the Fred
and Maria Devinki
Memorial Fellowship
Fund in conjunction with the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s
Center for Advanced Holocaust
Studies. Our parents, Fred and Maria
Devinki, taught us that there were
three values that mattered above
everything else: family, our Jewish
heritage, and education. They always
stressed to us the importance of
education, so it is fitting that we
honor their memory by educating
others about the Holocaust.
Both of our parents were raised
in large, successful families in
Wodzislaw, Poland, that were deeply
committed to Jewish education.
Then the Nazis came. From 1939 to
1942, our mother was a slave laborer
in an ammunition factory, and
was later forced to nurse typhoid
fever patients. Her father and his
three brothers were murdered in
Treblinka. On Yom Kippur 1942,
our father saw his mother and sister
shot by the Nazis in a roundup; he
survived being shot in the abdomen.
86 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
Ultimately, they lost more than 100
family members in the war.
Fortunately, our grandfather, Sholomo
Braun, had a business partner, Josef
Gondrowicz, who was a member
of the Polish national resistance
movement, the Armia Krajowa.
This righteous Gentile alerted our
parents to the coming liquidation of
the Wodzislaw ghetto and secured
a hiding place for them and several
family members at a nearby farm.
They survived beneath a barn in a
10’ x 15’ dirt hole for 27 months with
very little food, no way to stay warm,
and without basic necessities. After
the war the Devinkis (Dziewienckis)
went to a displaced persons camp
in Regensburg, Germany, where Sam
was born. Eventually, they immigrated
to Kansas City, rebuilding their
family and establishing a successful
real estate business.
Our families have been dedicated
Museum supporters for 20 years.
When we attended the opening,
our parents were filled with tears
of joy and sadness—recognizing
that the Museum would serve as a
living memorial to all of the family
members murdered in the Shoah.”